Autonomous vehicles use control systems that must recognize traffic signs and traffic lights in the area surrounding the vehicle and must be able to determine whether they apply to the vehicle. Even a vehicle travelling on a freeway may encounter traffic lights that it must observe. These must be distinguished from traffic lights that do not apply to the vehicle, such as those on overpasses, side roads, exit ramps and entrance ramps. Traffic lights that do not apply to a vehicle must be rejected by the control system since false positives can be as dangerous as a failure to identify a traffic light that a vehicle must respect.
Therefore, there is a need to have an intelligent traffic light selection algorithm in autonomous vehicle control systems that can differentiate between traffic lights that apply to the vehicle and those that do not.